A/N: Let me say in advance... I enjoyed the hell out of writing this chapter. And if you love angst, hopefully you will enjoy reading it. I don't know why you're reading my stuff if you don't like angst cause that's what I do lol. In any case, happy reading!

Chapter 15: Grief and Reunion

The Stark graveyard had once been full of strangers for Cat. And now it carried so many names she mourned. The first was added to the graveyard a very long time ago. Brandon Stark, an old boyfriend she had dated in college. When he died, it was the first time she had lost someone since her mother, and it had been a harsh blow. And when she fell, she fell into Ned's arms. They were both in mourning and they needed comfort from someone. Somewhere along the line, mourning had turned to friendship and friendship turned to love.

But then Ned died too. Catelyn thought it was an awful joke when she got the call. Brandon had died in a car crash. It was impossible that his brother could meet the same fate.

But it wasn't a joke. It wasn't a nightmare. It was real and there was no one to comfort her in the wake of his death.

She could not turn to her children in her grief. She was their mother, and she had to be strong for them. She was their shoulder to cry on. Their hand to hold. She had to help Robb with the business even though she hadn't used her business degree in years. She had to help take care of Bran as he adjusted to life without his legs. She had to look out for Rickon as he began lashing out and Sansa as she spent whole days locked in her room, alternating between sleeping and crying. She had to tell Jon it was okay to mourn, even if Ned was not his true father.

And Arya. Gods Arya.

With five children and a nephew to look after, it was easy to let something slip through the cracks. But that something shouldn't have been Arya. After the funeral, she seemed to be doing all right. She was quieter than usual, and sad and angry at varying intervals, just like the rest of her siblings. But she went back to school and kept up with her work and never asked Catelyn for help. Not that she had before. It was her father she went to. Always her father.

Catelyn shouldn't have trusted what she saw on the outside. Usually... usually she would have seen through her daughter but she was so tired and busy and in so much pain. So she missed it.

The next thing she knew, Arya was gone, and all she had left of her was a note slipped under her pillow.

The loss of Brandon and Ned was sudden. But Arya... that was a slow grieving process, drawn out over the course of a year. One year that oscillated between despair and hope at the very cruelest moments.

But she remembered the day that hope ended. She went back to that day even now... as she looked down at her daughter's grave.

Early that morning, Petyr had called her. One of his contacts discovered the body of a girl under a bridge. She was decomposed beyond recognition, but the police were checking the identity with dental records. No news yet... but the body was the right size.

"I'm sure it's not her," Petyr said. "There are bodies all over King's Landing. But I just wanted you to know... in case they call you later."

"Will they call whether or not it's her?" Catelyn asked.

"Yes, I expect so. Again, Cat, I wouldn't worry."

No amount of words could keep her from worrying. But still Catelyn nodded. "I'm not worried. I know she's alive somewhere. She's strong." She swallowed hard. "Thank you, Petyr."

She tried not to let the worry affect her day. She tried to carry on like normal. Work was a good distraction for her. Though if she could, she would have picked a different task than negotiating with Tywin Lannister.

Most CEOs would have left this dispute to someone lower on the totem pole. Not him. Tywin was known for micromanaging his business and with disputes with the Starks, he always managed them personally.

Today's dispute revolved around a breach in an agreement between their companies. Tywin had overstepped as he usually did and Robb was not about to let that stand. He would have negotiated himself if he was not amid a dispute with shareholders. So Catelyn had volunteered to face the lion's jaws. She was one of the few people Robb could trust not to give into him.

Some other members of the board had protested that. Umber said the slight would insult Tywin. Karstark suggested that Catelyn might not be able to handle him. Catelyn calmly reminded them of their own failures in negotiations with the Lannister CEO, and that shut them up.

And so she found herself in Tywin's office.

"The terms of the agreement we struck are clear enough to me," Catelyn said. "You don't offer your tech to our business partners in an attempt to shut us out and we don't offer our tech to yours."

"Have you done any previous business of which I am not aware with the Morrigen company?" Tywin asked mildly.

"They are a subset of Baratheon Incorporated and you know it," Catelyn said.

"Subset is a strong word, Mrs. Stark. They are their own entity. They just deal with the Baratheons frequently because they're both involved in the food industry," Tywin said. "In any case, we've discussed before that Baratheon Incorporated is a grey area."

"You discussed it," Catelyn said.

"Your husband was in business with the Baratheons long before me, it's true," Tywin said. "But I have three Baratheon grandchildren. If they inherit the company, will you forbid from doing business with them?"

"They aren't in charge of the company now," Catelyn said. "If they take charge, we are happy to renegotiate."

Tywin sat back slightly in his chair, his disdainful green eyes sparking with irritation. "Is this worth debating, Mrs. Stark? They are a small company. Hardly a great deal of lost business for you. And it's not my fault they like our offer."

"It's worth negotiating because I know what you're doing," Catelyn said. "You're testing out boundaries. We give you an inch and you take a mile. Your people intentionally reached out to them, hoping to cut us off." She leaned forward in her seat. "And for the record, if it were just a small company, you wouldn't be bothering with them, Mr. Lannister."

Tywin's eyes narrowed a fraction, and he opened his mouth to reply. The ring of Catelyn's phone cut him off before he could. She glanced quickly at the number, her heart leaping into her throat. Of course this call would come now of all times.

She stood quickly from her seat. "Forgive me. I have to take this."

Tywin gave her a dismissive wave of permission and she stepped out into the hall, rushing to click the 'answer' button before it stopped ringing.

"Yes, hello? This is Catelyn Stark speaking."

For the life of her, she could not remember the exact words of the detective on the phone. He apologized. He asked her to come to the station when she got the chance. But the most important word he said was 'match'. The body was a match for Arya. It was her.

She was dead.

The phone clattered from Catelyn's hands, striking the marble floor like a gunshot in the quiet hall. She could not breathe for a long moment. It was as if the news had killed her too, sucking the air right out of her lungs. But if she was dead, her mind would not be racing.

When she closed her eyes, she could see her daughter so clearly. From the day of her birth until that last morning when she rushed through a goodbye. Her little girl. And she would never see her again.

The day set out ahead of her was unbearable to think of now. She would have to go to the station and look upon what remained. She would have to tell her children and her nephew that their sister was dead, starting their grief fresh again. She imagined their tears. Their rage. Jon, who had held together the best after Ned's death... this blow would be worst of all for him. He and Arya were so close. And she had to tell them all.

How much tragedy can we endure... before we break?

"Mrs. Stark?"

Catelyn's head snapped up, and she found Tywin Lannister standing in front of her, holding her somehow not shattered phone in his hand. She had not heard him open the door, nor seen him until exactly that moment. His voice had jerked her back into her own body.

It took her a moment to register that he was holding the phone out to her, and she took it, quickly returning it to her purse. Her hand was trembling. She needed to speak. She needed to say something instead of standing there like a fool.

"What happened?" he asked. His voice was softer than usual... as if he was worried he might startle her if he spoke any louder.

"There was..." her voice came out weak and she cleared her throat. "There was a body found this morning. They matched it to Arya." Her eyes burned as she said it out loud. That made it real. "She's... she's dead."

Tywin did not respond for a long time. What was there to say? What comfort could a man like him possibly offer? She was furious with herself for showing such weakness in front of him. She was furious with him for witnessing it.

"We'll put this meeting on hold," he said at last. "You should return home. I'll call you a car."

"I drove myself," Catelyn muttered. "I'm fine."

"I doubt that, Mrs. Stark," Tywin said, already drawing his phone from his pocket. "You shouldn't drive in this state."

"I don't need your help," she said hoarsely. "I don't... I don't want anything from you."

"Maybe not, but I'm still offering it," Tywin said, pacing away from her, dialing a number.

Catelyn's vision went out of focus again as she only half listened to him making the call. She did not move. She knew if she stopped leaning against the wall, she would falter.

"The driver will be here in five minutes," she heard him say.

She nodded once.

"Mrs. Stark?" she was aware of his proximity to her again. "I believe you should sit."

She focused on the hand he extended to her. She did not want to accept it, but she had no other choice. She gripped it as tightly as she could, trying to anchor herself as he guided her off the wall and back into his office, sitting her in the nearest chair. A few beats later, he was holding a glass of whisky in front of her. It must have been the only thing he could think to do. That, she believed, was where that drink tradition of his started. Not at the gala but then, in the moment of her greatest loss. She accepted and drank it all without comment.

She looked around the office, feeling the pain close in around her heart. "This was the last place..." she murmured. "The last place she was seen. By you."

"Yes," Tywin agreed, taking the empty glass from her. He had to carefully unwind her fingers to detach her tight grip. "It seems it was."

"You should have called," she muttered. "Called someone. Anyone. You knew she was about to run and you just let her. Why did you—" She stopped herself, pressing the back of her hand to her lips to stop the sob welling up in her throat.

He had the grace not to defend himself. Tywin Lannister always fought for the last word. But perhaps even he knew better than to argue with a grieving mother. Instead, he stayed silent until his phone buzzed on his desk. Then he stood.

"The car is out front."

Catelyn nodded once, standing from her seat. She was still unsteady, and her chest felt as if someone had caved it in with a hammer. But she could stand.

"Thank you, Mr. Lannister. I will return the favor at a later date." Her voice was flat but at least it was no longer trembling.

"No need to repay me," he said. "This is a courtesy. Can you make it to the car on your own?"

"Yes, I can." She hurried to grab her bag and started toward the door.

"Mrs. Stark," he called out as she opened the door. She turned back to look at him. "I am sorry for your loss. You have my condolences."

A formality, she knew. And yet for a moment, she could almost believe he was genuine.

"Keep them," she said. "If you truly want to help... you can find out who the fuck did this to my daughter."

She left before he could sneak in any last words.

In some ways, it was wrong to be angry at him. It wasn't his fault her daughter had disappeared. He didn't know her, and he had no way of knowing this would happen. If he hadn't run into Arya in the graveyard that day and shown her a strange bit of kindness, she never would have come to his office.

But Catelyn had no other target for her fury and grief. She did not know who had done this to her girl. She did not know who had left her daughter for dead. And if she did not release her anger on someone, it would all well up inside her until she broke apart at the seams.

It amazed her still, two years later that she was still standing. It had been three years since her daughter had disappeared and two since they had laid her to rest beside her father in a closed casket. And somehow, Catelyn remained. Somehow, she still had tears to shed over their graves.

She knelt before Arya's stone, tracing her fingers through the engraving of her name.

"I'm sorry," she murmured for perhaps the thousandth time in the past few years. "I'm sorry you slipped through the cracks."

And she was. More than anything else. Because Brandon and Ned's deaths had been accidents out of her control. But Arya... she would always blame herself for her.

Catelyn was just pulling into the driveway when she received a thoroughly unexpected phone call. It was an unknown number, and she thought it would be some salesman. But she recognized the voice on the other end.

"Mrs. Stark."

"Mr. Lannister." Catelyn's brow furrowed. "This is unexpected. Can I help you with something?"

"No. But I think I can help you," he said. "Are you at home right now?"

"I just got back," Catelyn said, stepping out of her car.

"Good. I will be there shortly. I have something for you."

"And you couldn't deliver this something during business hours?" she asked. She was trying to think of where he had gotten her personal phone number and recalled she had given it to him when she asked for his help to find Arya.

"It's not business," Tywin said. "You'll understand when I arrive. Goodbye."

The call ended, and it left Catelyn standing bewildered beside her car. She was reasonably sure Tywin Lannister had never once visited the Stark Manor. Perhaps because he had never been invited. Their families weren't exactly friendly. And what could he possibly have to show her?

There was something strange about his voice on the phone. Almost urgent. And that made her nervous. Any shift in Tywin's usually chilling demeanor was cause for suspicion.

Arya had spent the past few years rigorously training her mind and body at all hours of the day. She learned how to go without sleep. Without food. She learned how to withstand extraordinary amounts of pain. She had experienced withdrawals from the nastiest drug on the market. But the ride back home... it terrified her to the point of nausea.

She had stayed with the House of Black and White to protect her family, but there was never a day that passed when she did not feel guilty for the pain she must have caused them. She used to lay awake at night, thinking of all of them. Her mother. Robb. Sansa. Bran. Rickon. Jon. How desperately she missed them. Even Sansa who she used to argue with all the time. It would be so sweet to fight with her again over some meaningless thing. She wanted them all back.

But the idea of one of them dying was far worse. So she had stayed away, resigning herself to the fact that she would never see them again.

Because the deal was clear. In return for answers and vengeance and protection for her family, they meant for her to leave Arya Stark behind. She would... she would have to leave her family behind again before long.

Arya had removed the colored contacts but kept the wig, just in case a Faceless Man saw her from a distance. She could see her reflection in the window. The reflection of Arya Stark. A symbol of her failure on her mission. What would they do if they found out?

"You'll understand when I arrive," Tywin was saying on the phone. "Goodbye."

Arya shivered, crossing her arms tight across her chest as he slid his phone back into his pocket. "So... she's home then?"

"She's home," he confirmed. "She'll be relieved to see you no doubt."

"She'll be angry," Arya murmured.

"I'd say you've more than earned that," Tywin said. "You're the one who stayed away for three years."

"I couldn't come back," Arya said.

"So you've said," Tywin said. "You haven't said why."

"Because I can't tell you why."

"There are an awful lot of things you can't do," Tywin aid. "Almost as if someone is telling you not to do them."

She glared up at him. "Why do you care where I've been? It has nothing to do with you."

"Doesn't it?" Tywin asked. "I was the last one to see you before you disappeared. Your mother enlisted my help to find you which I was unable to do. And I was with her when the police called to tell her they had found your body. On top of that, when you finally reappeared, it was working for my family, protecting my granddaughter. So yes, Miss Stark, it is my business. You made it my business the moment you came to my office to pay that damn debt of yours."

There was a harsh note to his voice and Arya had to steel herself to keep from flinching. She had met with all sorts of people in the past three years, many of them terrifying. So she did not understand why she still found this man so intimidating.

Maybe it was just the cut of his words. That her mother had been forced to seek help with him. She was sorry for putting her mother through that, and guilty all over again for letting her family think she was dead.

"More to the point," Tywin said, his voice steady again. "It's not exactly easy to hide from me. People have tried to do it before. The fact that you stayed off my radar is a feat. I can't help but be curious how you managed it."

Arya shifted in her seat. She had managed it because she barely left the House of Black and White her first year. "I was... indoors a lot."

He glanced at her. "Were you being kept indoors?"

She shook her head. "Sorry. I-"

"Can't tell me. Yes, I assumed," he said. "We're almost there."

Yes. They were. Arya didn't need him to tell her that. She had driven down this road so many times she knew it by memory. And sometimes... sometimes in Braavos she used to close her eyes and imagine coming home.

This was familiar territory for her and perhaps that was what made it so painful.

Catelyn was pacing the front hall, absently scrolling through emails but barely reading any of them. She found it difficult to simply carry on with her day after such a strange phone call, and she couldn't stop thinking of what Tywin meant by 'something'.

They never communicated on anything outside of business. The only time they had was when Arya went missing. Catelyn had, in a moment of anger, told him to find out who had killed her daughter if he wanted to help. But that was a shot in the dark. Not a task she expected him to pick up. No... It couldn't have anything to do with that. Tywin Lannister was not one for such charity.

But what else could it be?

The knock came, and she steeled herself to answer the door. When she did, sure enough, Tywin Lannister was standing on her porch. And someone else was standing in his shadow, just out of sight.

"Morning," he said, grasping his shadow by the collar and maneuvering her in front. "This is what I came to show you."

For a long moment, Catelyn could not process what she was seeing. A ghost, surely. Not something tangible. And yet Tywin was solidly gripping the shoulder of the shade. And even he could not possibly grasp a ghost.

"Arya?" she breathed out.

The ghost looked up at her with wide grey eyes. Her daughter's eyes. Yes. It was her. "Mom... I..."

Catelyn fell to her knees in front of Arya, pulling her into her arms. Just to make sure... she was real. Gods, she felt real. Warm. Alive. She had not grown an inch since she last saw her but her body felt leaner and harder. Her hair was cut short. And when she pulled back to look at her, she could see her face was three years aged—the face of a young woman rather than a girl. But it was Arya. Her girl. Her lost girl come home to her. It was all she could do not to break down in sobs.

"Where have you been?" she asked, cupping her face in her hands. "Three years Arya. What happened to you? We thought you were dead. They... they found your body."

"I know," her daughter's eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry. Really. I didn't mean for this to happen. I know you're angry but-"

"I'm not angry." Catelyn shook her head. "I will be. Later. I'll be furious. But not now... I'm just so glad to see you alive." She stroked her cheeks with her thumbs, brushing away her tears. She was crying too like she hadn't cried in years. "I never thought I'd see you again."

She felt her daughter shudder beneath her hands. "I know. I know, I'm sorry."

Catelyn shook her head, pulling her back into her arms. This couldn't be real, even though it felt real. She was not used to good things happening in the fall. But if it was real... Catelyn would thank every god in the universe for this fortune.

"Are the others here?" Arya mumbled into her shoulder.

"Most of them are out," Catelyn said, pulling back from the hug. "But Bran and Rickon are upstairs. Go see them. We'll talk about this... everything... after."

Arya nodded once. Then she ducked past her and hurried toward the main stairs. Catelyn straightened, watching her daughter go. And only then did she remember that Tywin Lannister was still standing on her porch.

He remained still and silent throughout the reunion, likely wishing that he did not have to deal with the display of emotion. And now he watched her, eyebrows slightly raised, waiting to see how she would respond to this extraordinary turn of events.

"This... isn't a dream is it?" she asked at last.

"If it was, I highly doubt I would be here," Tywin said.

"Good point," Catelyn said. Even her wildest dream couldn't come up with something like this. She jerked a hand through her hair. "Would you... like a drink? I have a few questions."

"I imagine you do. So do I." A shadow of a smile crossed his face. "I'll take a drink."

A/N: One of my favorite things about writing Tywin is that he's very good at mind games and absolutely NOT good at ANYTHING that involves emotion, so I like to find situations that make him go "yeah, okay, I have no idea what to fuck to do here because there are feelings involved and I don't like those" and then watch the fun. And this was CERTAINLY a chapter full of those moments. And I got to write more Catelyn and Tywin interactions in addition to Arya and Tywin and both of those are ALWAYS my fave.

Hopefully you enjoyed as well. Gonna be WAY more Stark feels next chapter, and over the next few chapters. Review, subscribe and I'll see you next time!